(a) Field
The inventive concept relates to a display device.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display device is currently one of the most widely used flat panel display devices, and includes two display panels on which electric field generating electrodes such as a pixel electrode and a common electrode are formed, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the two display panels.
The liquid crystal display device displays an image by generating an electric field on a liquid crystal layer by applying a voltage to the field generating electrodes, determining alignment directions of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer through the generated electric field, and controlling polarization of incident light.
Among the liquid crystal displays, a vertically aligned mode liquid crystal display, in which liquid crystal molecules are aligned so that long axes thereof are perpendicular to the upper and lower panels while no electric field is applied, has been in the limelight because its contrast ratio is high and a wide reference viewing angle is easily implemented.
However, such a liquid crystal display device has lower side visibility than front visibility, thus a method in which one pixel is divided into two subpixels to be applied with different voltages has been used in order to solve the problem.
In addition, a plurality of domains each having different alignment directions of the liquid crystal molecules can be formed in one pixel.
As described above, as a means of forming the plurality of domains, a method of forming cutouts such as minute slits in the field generating electrode or protrusions on the field generating electrode is used.
The method enables the plurality of domains to be created by aligning the liquid crystal molecules in a direction perpendicular to a fringe field that is generated between edges of the cutouts or protrusions and the field generating electrodes facing the edges thereof. The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art.